Water for Food seminar to examine research partnerships for global food security Sept. 17

September 16th, 2013

LINCOLN, Neb. – The Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska will host “The University of Nebraska and CIAT: New Research Partnerships for Global Food Security” at 2 p.m., Sept. 17 in the Great Plains Room of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln East Union.

The seminar will be given by Ruben G. Echeverría, director-general of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture. All students, faculty and staff are welcome.
Echeverría will discuss the organization’s efforts to cultivate global partnerships in agricultural research, including food security, natural resources management, climate change, and policy analysis.

Echeverría’s visit is intended to further connect CIAT’s research with top universities in the United States, building relationships with professors and students to forge collaborations and enhance global agricultural research impacts.

Established in 1967 and based in Colombia, CIAT is a non-profit research and development organization dedicated to reducing hunger and poverty while protecting natural resources in developing countries through research aimed at eco-efficient agriculture.

CIAT is one of the 15 specialized research centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, and is also the headquarters for the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security.

Echeverría has worked on agricultural and rural development issues for 30 years. Since March 2009, he has served as Director-General of CIAT. He is also President of the International Board of the Center for Rural Development in Latin America.

From 2004 to 2009, Echeverría was Executive Director of the Science Council of CGIAR, based at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Italy. In 1992, he joined the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C. where he served as Director of Agriculture and Rural Development from 2000 to 2004.

Previous research appointments include the International Service for National Agricultural Research in the Netherlands, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico and the Uruguayan Land Reform Institute. He studied agronomy at the University of Uruguay (Bachelor of Science 1980) and agriculture economics at the University of Minnesota (Master of Science, 1985, and doctorate, 1988).